.... At the instance
of the father and for a reasonable fee, Mr. H. undertook to
go to Greenbrier court to defend Holland. Mr. Winston and
myself were the judges. Such were the prejudices there, as I
was afterwards informed by Thomas Madison, that the people
there declared that even Patrick Henry need not come to
defend Holland, unless he brought a jury with him. On the
day of the trial the court-house was crowded, and I did not
move from my seat for fourteen hours, and had no wish to do
so. The examination took up a great part of the time, and
the lawyers were probably exhausted. Breckenridge was
eloquent, but Henry left no dry eye in the court-house. The
case, I believe, was murder, though, possibly, manslaughter
only; and Henry laid hold of this possibility with such
effect as to make all forget that Holland had killed the
storekeeper, and presented the deplorable case of the jury's
killing Holland, an innocent man. He also presented, as it
were, at the clerk's table, old Holland and his wife, who
were then in Louisa, and asked what must be the feeling of
this venerable pair at this awful moment, and what the
consequences to them of a mistaken verdict affecting the
life of their son. He caused the jury to lose sight of the
murder they were then trying, and weep with old Holland and
his wife, whom he painted, and perhaps proved to be, very
respectable. All this was done in a manner so solemn and
touching, and a tone so irresistible, that it was impossible
for the stoutest heart not to take sides with the
criminal.... The result of the trial was, that, after a
retirement of an half or quarter of an hour, the jury
brought in a verdict of not guilty! But on being reminded by
the court that they might find an inferior degree of
homicide, they brought in a verdict of manslaughter.

"Mr. Henry was equally successful in the comic line.... The
case was that a wagoner and the plaintiff were travelling to
Richmond, and the wagoner knocked down a turkey and put it
into his wagon. Complaint was made to the defendant, a
justice; both the parties were taken up; and the wagoner
agreed to take a whipping rather than be sent to jail. But
the plaintiff refused. The justice, however, gave him, also,
a small whipping; and for this the suit was